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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 45 | June 2000


Room named for Sir John Ferguson

A great Australian was honoured and remembered on 8 May 2000 when a prestigious new meeting room in the Library was named the Ferguson Room in memory of Sir John Ferguson, compiler of the monumental Bibliography of Australia.

The room overlooks the front foyer and was launched by Pauline Fanning. Mrs Fanning is a retired senior member of the Library’s staff who worked closely for many years with Sir John on his bibliography, and on the transfer to the Library and then the arrangement and housing of his collection of 34 000 items of Australiana and Pacific Island material.

Sir  John Ferguson

Sir John Ferguson (1881–1969)
After colour photograph by Keast Burke
National Library of Australia

The launch was attended by many members of the Ferguson family and by some other long-standing friends of the Library. Mrs Fanning spoke of her admiration for Sir John’s courage and determination to complete and publish the massive undertaking of the Bibliography of Australia, adding it had been a privilege to work with him. Responding on behalf of the family, Alec Ferguson, Sir John’s son, recollected growing up in a house full of books, where even the car could not fit in the garage because of the number of books stored there. He also spoke of attending the opening of the Library in 1968 on behalf of Sir John, and expressed the family’s appreciation of the Library’s continued recognition of Sir John’s importance to the institution.

P. Fanning with Sir John Ferguson's son Alec & daughter Diana Rose

The new Ferguson Room contains a portrait of Sir John and a photograph of the first Ferguson Room, and will display a changing selection of material collected by Sir John, as well as some colonial art. It seats about 50 people and can be used both by staff, and by prior arrangement by organisations from outside the Library. There is a description on the Library’s home page at: www.nla.gov.au/library/fergroom.html.

Margaret Dent

Left: Pauline Fanning (right) at the National Library ceremony with Sir John Ferguson's son Alec and daughter Diana Rose. Photograph: Richard Briggs, reprinted with permission of the Canberra Times.

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